Someone to Love by Addison Moore

everything is new again
in this strange springtime in my heart. I’m falling, and it feels
so very right.
    Cruise brings my hand to his lips with a
forlorn expression.
    I’ve managed to douse all the joy he
exemplified only moments before.
    “Okay, Kenny.” He presses a kiss born of
sadness against the back of my hand. “I’ll do anything you
want.”
    I wish I could be honest with Cruise.
    I wish I could be honest with myself.
     

Cruise
     
    Teach me how to use my body .
    I pour over Kenny in all her inordinate
beauty and wonder why in God’s name she would choose this path. Who
hurt her so bad that she couldn’t understand something greater than
a string of one-night stands waited for her?
    I get up and start a fire before we freeze to
death. The night riffles through my mind like a disorganized filing
cabinet shaking out events in random order. Kenny and I arriving at
Ackerman House, the sea of hard-ons surrounding her once she
drifted in that ocean of depravity, then Blair showing up like some
twisted nightmare. The last time we stood face-to-face was the day
she declared everything I thought I knew about us null and void and
asked for my “blessing” to move on with her new Mr. Uptight Right.
Tonight she wanted to talk , to start the New Year without
any bitterness. I simply told her I wasn’t bitter and walked
away.
    It was Kenny I wanted to talk to, to be near.
It was Kenny and all of her beautiful glory I wanted to surround
myself with. Then her lips gave that mile-wide resplendent smile,
reduced me to nothing, and I kissed her right there. I wondered if
Blair was watching—if she thought it was some kind of perverse
revenge kiss. A part of me was sad for her because I knew the
truth. I was kissing someone special, someone I’m falling for a lot
harder and stronger than I ever did for Blair all those years
combined.
    Kenny lands on the sheepskin rug as the fire
roars to life. I pull two more rugs from the corner and blanket the
floor with the fleece of three dead sheep, discards from the bed
and breakfast. Something about the irony doesn’t escape me. There’s
definitely something dead inside both Kenny and me if we can’t
pinpoint love, if we can’t figure out that it just might be staring
us in the face. And here I was all amped up to tell her how I felt
when we walked through the door, but those weren’t the words she
wanted to hear.
    “Second lesson.” I let out a quiet groan as I
land beside her. She’s got her top hanging so low her cleavage
bulges out like perfect twin mounds.
    “Second?” Her eyes sparkle like cut glass as
she reclines onto her elbows.
    “The kisses were first. Which, by the way,
you’ve mastered, but I highly suggest we practice to keep your
skill-set high.” I give a devilish grin and sweep my lips across
her cheek just enough to tease her. “But tonight, we’re advancing
to the fine art of touch.” I run my fingers up her bare thigh then
slowly up her skirt until I round out the searing skin of her
bottom. Her lids close partway, and her chest rises and falls in
one quick motion.
    “I don’t know…” She rolls into me. The slight
curve of her mouth lets me know she approves. “What about all those
phone numbers? You said get six, and I got twenty.” Her teeth graze
over her blood red lips, and my jeans cinch at the crotch.
    “You were trying too hard.” I hold back a
laugh. “Besides, other people don’t count.”
    “No?” She watches me with that diamond vision
of hers. I can feel her wanting me, trembling to have me. I want to
string it out—make it hurt until she abandons her efforts at
becoming anything that remotely resembles the predator I’ve morphed
into.
    She picks up my hand and rubs slow circles
into my palm.
    “This sounds personal,” she whispers, her
eyes heavy with either lust or fatigue. I’m hoping for the
former.
    “It should always be personal.” My fingers
land firm on her thigh. I run my thumb under the lip of